Finding Dory

U¦ Blu-ray, 3D, DVD

You can say what you like about Disney (and yes, Mickey and his pals will pretty much be the film industry within the next ten years) but they don't rapidly churn out franchises on a conveyor belt of sequels. It's been thirteen years since Pixar released Finding Nemo, and although the process of making an animation is painfully slow, it's not that slow.

The gamble is of course that with such a long period between films, audiences might not care so much about a fish being found - again. The fact that this sequel took over a billion at the box office worldwide means it was a less a gamble and more of a sure thing. in fact, it clearly couldn't have been surer-er.

It's been a year since Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) helped Marlin (Albert Brooks) find the missing Nemo (Hayden Rolence). While helping out with a class, Dory, who suffers from short-term memory loss, gets flashbacks to her own childhood, and suddenly remembers more about her parents. Despite her poor memory, she decides to swim off and find them.

Now don't tell me - Jaws is your favourite film, am I right?

The sea however, is a dangerous place, full of predators who would think nothing of snacking on little Dory. Luckily for her she has some help; both Marlin and Nemo agree to help her, as do some new friends she meets along the way, including Hank the octopus (Ed O'Neill), Destiny the whale shark (Kaitlin Olson) and Bailey the beluga whale (Ty Burrell). But can she really find her parents after all this time?

If we could have any sequel to any Pixar film, we would have to admit to having one to Finding Nemo way down on our list. That's not to say it was a bad film -it wasn't - we would just prefer to see more of Woody and Buzz, Mike and Sulley, the Incredible family, etc.

It may not be our favourite Pixar franchise, but it doesn't stop it from being any less entertaining. it's one of those films that you might initially struggle to get excited about watching, but when you do commit, it slowly reels you in with its abundance of watery wit and crustaceous charm.

The story is hardly original. Dory may suffer from memory loss, but you're bound to get a bout of déjà vu. A fish wants to find missing family? Hasn't that been done already? Yes, yes it has. But this is all about the journey and less about the destination. It's a road flick, but underwater, with fish.

This coffee tastes funny, I just can't put my tentacle on it...

There is something undeniably cute about Finding Dory. It ticks all the right boxes as far as an animated Disney title is concerned, and therefore doesn't disappoint. The script is both fun and witty, that can be appreciated by young and old. It also isn't littered with bilious songs, which is also a bonus.

Where it truly excels however is with how it looks, as it's visually stunning. Considering how much computing processing power it must have taken to produce such sumptuous imagery, there's a certain irony with how they've managed to make it look so organic. Yes the sea looks suitably wet, but it's the little details, of which there are so many, that never fail to impress. The person who was given the task of reflections, for instance, deserves a pat on the back.

We many not of necessarily wanted it, but now it's surfaced, Finding Dory will entertain the whole family, hook, line and sinker.